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South Florida Crime

COCONUT CREEK (CBSMiami) – Maria Holly may have stopped at the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino hoping to hit the jackpot, but instead she crapped out when she was arrested for allegedly leaving an elderly woman in her care sitting in the woman’s car while she may have run in to find her fortune.

Now, Holly is in the Broward County Jail, charged with elderly neglect after a good samaritan found the woman, believed to be 95, waiting in her car alone on a day when South Florida broke heat records.

Paramedics were called, and the woman was taken to the hospital. Holly was arrested after it was determined she was responsible for the woman as a caregiver, and had driven to the casino in the patient’s car.

Police charged her with a single count of neglecting an elderly disabled adult, and ordered her held on $1 thousand bond, but a check of her background found an elderly exploitation incident in Palm Beach County, as well as a charge of grand theft.

Holly, worked as a live-in aide but who has a DelRay Beach address, was ordered held on both of those charges, Broward Judge Louis Schiff, expressing concern that the woman had been left alone for hours in her own car, in a situation that could have been more dangerous had it not taken place at night when the temperature had dropped, raised the bond in her case to $5 thousand, banned her from working with the elderly or as a health aide, and required her to wear an anchor monitor if released.

It’s not known how she was able to get a job as a caregiver for an elderly person while facing felony charges involving exploitation of an elder, but an attorney who represented her in bond court Monday said she had not been charged in that case until Monday.

There was some drama at her bond nearing Monday when she collapse as she faced the judge, but she returned and finished her court appearance.